Key holder



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J. m. BRYSON.

KEY HOLDER. APPLICATION FILED maze, 1'922.

Patented Nov. 28, 1922.

mow/1p Patented Nov. 28, 1922:

@ATlihll l lt' llth JOHN M. BRYSON, OF DETROIT, MICHIGAN.

KEY HOLDER.

Application filed April 29, 1922;

Be it'kno'wn-that I, JOHN M. BRYsoN', a citizenoftheUnited States'ofAmerica. residin' at'Detroit; in the county of Wayne andgtate'oflMichigtm, have invented certain-fnew and useful Improvements inKey Holders, of'which the following is aspecificat'ion,--reference beinghad therein to the accompanying drawings.

This'finvention relates to devices for detachabl'y retaining a key inits look so that it can not'be' pushed out by means of aninstrum'entinserted in the look from the outer side of the door, and itsobject is to provide a simple device which may be cheaply manufacturedfrom wire and which is so constructed as to preclude its accidental displacement and to provide for its application to different forms of keys;A further object is to provide a construction wherein the side membersor legs of the device are crossed or interlocked to prevent accidentaldisplacement of the device from the door lock to which it is applied andto provide a narrow end portion which may be inserted in a small openingof a key or may be expanded to engage a key opening of comparativelylarge area. It is also an object to provide certain other new and usefulfeatures in the construction, all as hereinafter more fully described.

WVith the above and other ends in view the invention consists in thematters herein after set forth and more particularly pointed out in theappended claims, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, inwhich Figure l is a perspective view of a device illustrative of theinvention and showing the same as applied to a door lock; and

Fig. 2 is a similar view of the device showing the same adjusted andapplied to a key having a comparatively small opening.

The device which is the subject of the present invention is adapted foruse in con nection with door locks and latches having a knob or handle 1provided with a rotatable shank portion 2 for operating the latch bolt3, and provided with a locking bolt 4 operable by means of a key 5insertable in the look through a key hole 6 in a face plate 7 secured tothe inner face of the door 8, such lock and latch being of any old andwell known construction and forming no part of Serial No. 557,351.

the present invention'but being shown merely for the purposes ofillustration The device illustrative of the invention comprises a singlepiece of wire which is bent intermediate its ends to form a spring loopor eye 10, the wire being crossed at 11 to close the eye and then bentto bring the" adjacent portions of the wire into parallelism and thenagain bent and crossed as at 12 in alternate relation to the crossing11, thus forming an elongated closed loop 13 adapted to receive theshank 2 of the door knob, said loop being of a width to loosely it theshank and of a'length to permit extendedsliding movement of said loopupon the shank, longitudinally of the loop. Adjacent the crossing point12, the wires are again bent and extended in substantial parallelism toprovide an extended key engaging end portion 14, the extreme endportions 15 of said wire being bent laterally toward each other to closethe end of the key engaging loop 14 when the end faces of the wires arebrought into contact with each other and are held in that position bythe spring or yieldaction of said wires, said inwardly bent end portions15 together forming a rounded end for the key engaging loop so that itmay be readily inserted in an eye or opening in the handle portion ofthe key where such key opening is of extended area, the loop 14: beingextended in width by the engaged position of the opposed ends of thewire so that the key can not be turned sufliciently to throw the lockingbolt when said end portion or loop is in the key opening. Where theopening in the key is comparatively small, too small to receive theextended loop 14, the bent ends 15 of the wire may he sprung out ofalinement as shown in Fig, 2, and past each other, thus permitting thesides of the loop to approach each other, narrowing the width of theloop siifiiciently to permit of its being inserted in the key opening.\Vhen sprung out of alinement these end portions pass each other at theside of the wire opposite that at which the wires cross at 12 or theupper end of the loop and therefore end portions of the wire areinterlocked so that they can not spread apart to interfere with theirready removal or insertion in the eye of the key, and as the wires crosseach other at 12 in alternate relation to their crossing at 11, a closedloop is formed to receive the shank 2 which loop can not be readilyopened or spread to release the device from said shank, thus precludingthe possibility of accidental displacement or detachment by asmallchild. As th end loop 14 is of considerable width, afger disengagementof this loop from the ey of the key, said loop may be passed over thekey to engage the shank portion of the key and further guard against thedisplacement of the device and also prevent it from swinging upon itssupport upon the shank 2. A key retainer which is simple in constructionand very cheap to manufacture, is pro Vided, and the construction ofwhich is such as to facilitate its manipulation in use I Changes in formand arrangement are contemplated and I do not therefore limit myself tothe particular construction, except as specifically set forth in theappended claims. v Having thus fully described my invention what I claimis:

1. A device of the character described formed of a single wire bent toform an elongated spring loop adapted to receive the shank of a doorhandle, said wire being crossed to close the lower end of said loop andextended beyond said point of cross ing to provide a second key engagingloop with the ends of said wire in abutting relation and held inengagement by the spring action of the wire, to close the lower of saidsecond loop. I

2. A key retainer formed from a single wire bent intermediate its endsto form a spring eye and the wire crossed to close said eye and extendedto provide an elongated door-handle-shank engaging loop with the wireagain crossed in alternate relation to the first named crossing to closethe lower end of the elongated loop, the wire below said second crossingbeing extended to form a second elongated and comparatively narrow keyengaging loop with the end portions of the wire bent inwardly to provideoppos ing end faces adapted to be held in engage ment with each other bythe spring action of the wire and to provide a rounded and closed lowerend for said key engaging 1oop, said inwardly bent end portions beingadapted to be forced laterally out of alinementwith each other to lieside by side and bring the K sides of said key engaging loop toward eachother to decrease the width of said loop.

In testimony whereof I afiiX my signature in presence of two witnesses.

JOHN M. BRYSON. Witnesses CHARLES W. STAUTFFIGER, KARL H. BUTLER.

